The decision to ban gender-based pricing was taken in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Tuesday. Under the terms of the ruling, insurers will be unable to use gender to set premiums for car, medical insurance and pension schemes from December 2012.

Experts have warned that women could now face a 25pc rise in car insurance costs, while pension income for men could fall by up to 10pc.

Speaking on Tuesday, Maggie Craig, the ABI's acting director general, said the ruling was "disappointing news for UK consumers" and something the UK insurance industry had "fought against for the last decade".

Adrian Brown, UK chief executive at blue-chip insurer RSA, added: "It is completely disadvantageous to the very people it was intended to protect and prevents insurers from using a legitimate rating factor.

"I would urge the Government to make the case for honest drivers who are already suffering because of the rising price of petrol and the growing compensation culture."

Catherine Barton, partner at Ernst & Young added that factors such as age could be targeted next: "Clearly unfair discrimination is not a good thing.

But what about discrimination based on robust statistical analysis? If gender can no longer be used as a rating factor, there are clearly other factors which may subsequently come under unfair discrimination scrutiny."